From:http://law.jrank.org/pages/2858/Billy-Mitchell-Court-Martial-1925.html
Seeing the Army using the airplane at first only for observation and, later, to shoot at enemy planes, he was perplexed that strafing and bombing never occurred to the men who ran the war. He proposed to General John J. Pershing that troops be dropped behind German lines by plane and parachute "in order so to surprise the enemy by taking him from the rear that it would give our infantry an opening." Pershing found the idea impossible and absurd.
By the war's end, Mitchell was convinced that (*) "Only an air force can fight an air force."
Aviation pioneer, born in Nice, France. The son of a US senator, he grew up in Milwaukee, enlisted for service in the Spanish-American War and received a Signal Corps commission (1901). Assigned to the aviation section (1916), he learned to fly the following year and immediately became a forceful and outspoken advocate of military air power. In France (Sep 1918) he commanded the largest concentration of aircraft (some 1500 warplanes) in aviation's brief history. In 1921 and 1923 he energetically arranged for aircraft to demonstrate the potential of the new arm by sinking obsolete warships at sea, but unconvinced, the authorities continued to grade air power low on the priority list. He provoked a court-martial by his continuing and insistent criticism of his superiors, whom he accused of negligence and even treason. Convicted of insubordination, he resigned from the army (Feb 1926). As a civilian, he continued to promote his vision of air power's importance in warfare. World War 2 brought him full posthumous vindication.
From:http://law.jrank.org/pages/2858/Billy-Mitchell-Court-Martial-1925.html
Seeing the Army using the airplane at first only for observation and, later, to shoot at enemy planes, he was perplexed that strafing and bombing never occurred to the men who ran the war. He proposed to General John J. Pershing that troops be dropped behind German lines by plane and parachute "in order so to surprise the enemy by taking him from the rear that it would give our infantry an opening." Pershing found the idea impossible and absurd.
By the war's end, Mitchell was convinced that (*) "Only an air force can fight an air force."
*good quote, use for heading
following used from http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/2814/Billy-Mitchell.html
(see underlined portion)
Aviation pioneer, born in Nice, France. The son of a US senator, he grew up in Milwaukee, enlisted for service in the Spanish-American War and received a Signal Corps commission (1901). Assigned to the aviation section (1916), he learned to fly the following year and immediately became a forceful and outspoken advocate of military air power. In France (Sep 1918) he commanded the largest concentration of aircraft (some 1500 warplanes) in aviation's brief history. In 1921 and 1923 he energetically arranged for aircraft to demonstrate the potential of the new arm by sinking obsolete warships at sea, but unconvinced, the authorities continued to grade air power low on the priority list. He provoked a court-martial by his continuing and insistent criticism of his superiors, whom he accused of negligence and even treason. Convicted of insubordination, he resigned from the army (Feb 1926). As a civilian, he continued to promote his vision of air power's importance in warfare. World War 2 brought him full posthumous vindication.
cause of court-martial